Repair-It

My mom wants a phone. Requirements: can text and can take pictures. If there isn't anything else out there I would say a 520 or 521 will do.

Suggestions?

As we discussed it looks like your AT&T options are the 920 @ $279 from Newegg and the 520 @ ~$65. The 925 is available for AT&T but is not currently a deal.

10 gigz.. cheap wonder if they have 4 gigz.

Might want to blank out the numbels.

Meh we can all just block numbels.. was too lazy to do that. Feel free to pretend to be a telemalketer

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html

So right now the breakdown looks like this:
4GB
$70.00/mo.
Johnathon Li Smartphone $40.00/mo.†
Shuching Li Smartphone $25.00/mo.
James Li Smartphone $40.00/mo.†
Michael Li Smartphone $40.00/mo.†
Total: $215 excluding taxes, fees and your 25% discount.
So because Mom got an off contract phone her monthly price goes up by $5 (she had a basic phone with $20/mo, now with the smart phone OFF contract she has to pay $25/mo. $15 less than the NORMAL price for smart phones)
AFTER November:
4GB
$70.00/mo.
Johnathon Li Smartphone $25.00/mo.†
Shuching Li Smartphone $25.00/mo.
James Li Smartphone $25.00/mo.†
Michael Li Smartphone $40.00/mo.†
So because our contract ended our price both drops down to $25 a month.
Total: $185 excluding taxes, fees and your 25% discount.
So bottom line is we still need to wait to get the $30 discount until November. You just signed up for a 2 year contract so that will stay at $40. Me and John can find a new OFF contract phone when the time comes in November.
Buying power
So since we're both saving $15 a month on our smartphones, with the 2 year contract (24 months) we would be paying $360 over the 2 years. So whatever phone we get that is under that $360 we would save that money. Keep in mind new phones are around $600-700. So if it makes sense to sign up for another 2 year contract then do that. Changing this plan doesn't lock us into never being able to sign up for 2 year contracts.

That's right. Good assessment. One thing I will say is T-Mobile does it well because the phone cost just gets spread over 2 years. But it's NOT a contract (there is no separate ETF).